The Maelstrom Mod introduces four new races to the Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion Universe. They are independent of the original races and have unique strengths and weaknesses. Maelstrom is available for Rebellion, Diplomacy, Entrenchment and Original Sins.
Description
The Maelstrom Mod for Rebellion SoaSE. A epic battle between the seven races ... TEC, Vasari, Advent, Norlamins, Replicators and the Trade Alliance, with their two respective factions Loyalists and Rebels.
Preview
Post a comment
Profile
Related Mods
Related Games
Sins of a Solar Empire: Diplomacy
Real Time Strategy
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Real Time Strategy
Tags
well that was out of nowhere, any patch notes?
Release notes are included in the mod.
The News for this release has yet to be authorized by ModDB - which includes release notes.
I have split this mod into a 'standard' and an 'expansion' release.
I am currently working on the expansion version.
Thanks you so much for a Standard version! I can finally play this game again. Thanks!
I did not realize the crazy pirates, dreadnoughts ...etc were that bad. LOL
pirate faction is not bad... they are awesome and strong tho...
One of my all time favorite Sins mods,tyvm soase-maelstrom.
Cheers
Where is the fraction of the Pirates? Why delete? Return back please!
Pirate race will be completed and included in the expansion version of the mod.
Thank you very much for the new version! Waiting for the expansion also!
Thanks for your patients ...
I love this version the most thus far! The new voice-overs are the best, especially for the trade alliance!
Only played the new version for a few minutes, and already it feels like it should of been an official DLC for the game!
Well done!
Voted for best mod of 2015 :D
Hi BrandonPotter,
Thanks and glad you like it.
Any feedback is welcome ... and of course it doesn't all need to be positive feedback ... so as to improve the mod, if you know what I mean.
Cheers
Thanks for the mod! But the pirates would still be :)
Yep
I found a lil bug. You can even see it on the main menu somtimes. the Vasari Kultorask Titan's main textures arent working, but the team colours are. So the titan shows up in all green, blue, red, purple, or whatever the team colour is :D
And some of the Norlamin's research upgrades look a lil funky, and one is missing an icon. So it only shows up as a blank box. Their research tree is a little confusing at first. Alot of the upgrade needed an upgrade that was hidden in an entirely different research area.
Other then that, not finding anything buggy. Ill keep an eye out for more :D
The Titan's textures (for the original races) are huge files ... which I tried to optimize, with strange results. Will fix ...
Yes, I noticed the minerals explorers icon has been lost.
Norlamins research trees is logical/consistent with the Skylark books. I could double-up on some research to make things clearer.
Thanks for the feedback ... much appreciated
No Problem. Ill keep an eye out for more issues :D
I also noticed that the Norlamins didnt have any upgrade to increase their ships weapons range, rate of fire, or damages O-o Did I miss something?
The lack of upgrades in those areas makes it a bit hard for them to keep up with other races ingame.
If you look at there Research upgrades (i.e 4th, 5th and 6th Order Projector research) you will find upgrades there.
Also the Norlamins have substantial bonuses to there offensive and defensive capabilities in their own culture, once researched (see their culture research).
ah no pirate faction??? damn that's lame... coz for me i don't have any crashes...
The completed Pirate race will be included in the expansion version of the mod. I am currently finishing off the new voice-overs.
thanks.... can't wait for the release of the expansion... Pirate Faction all the way!!!...
Thanks so much for the continued work on this mod, Maelstrom Team. This is my favorite Sins mod out of them all.
Cheers. I hope you enjoy it!
I've got a question.
Do you notice the power difference between the factions? Base factions have a fraction of the damage output and armor strength of the added factions, and even the new factions have terrible power disparities. I don't know why you do this or if you even notice it, but it's VERY easy to spot once you try each of the factions out.
A combined fleet of Norlamin and Alliance capital ships, starbases, and even titans has a hard time taking down even a small number of Replicator ships, and in my experience they are almost certain to lose a large number of their own ships during the fight.
The base factions have the same issue, but several times worse. You added incredibly strong new factions and it doesn't seem like you buffed the old guys to compensate at all. I can't expect a TEC player against an equally-skilled Replicator/Alliance player to win past the first ten to fifteen minutes.
I noticed you removed the Pirates this time. That's great, since they were clearly unfinished. And by "unfinished", I mean ridiculously overpowered. Each new faction you add seems to just get stronger and stronger. The pirate rebel titan could do over 1000 damage in a single weapon shot! Holy ****!
tl;dr balancing issues man
Sorry if this comes across as rude or impatient. I love the mod and love playing it, but it sucks when only a few factions are actually viable. It just feels like you don't even pay attention to the stat numbers when you make these things.
Balancing aside, I love the new voices.
Try playing the AI at higher difficult levels.
There are many way of setting up a game ... varying difficulty levels, teams, maps, etc
That doesn't really address the issue at all.
Sure, you can just turn a harder bot's difficulty down so that he stops fighting back, but that's not very fun.
And when we're talking about player versus player combat, the power difference becomes ten times more significant.
I'm not trying to attack you. I'm just pointing out that there's a pretty significant issue with balancing here. I love the new voices, and I've found that this newest release is the most stable one yet. However, I would like to be able to play Vasari without every match against my buddy (playing alliance/replicator) to be a mad struggle to fight even a small number of ships.
This mod is probably my favorite Sins mod to play and the content added is amazingly well-done, but these balance issues become more prevalent every time we try something new (increasing difficulty, more bots, different teams, different factions, etc.) and it's having a negative impact on the playing experience.
Sorry for the super long comments, but this has been bugging me for a while.
Thanks for the feedback, I now understand your position better ... glad you are passionate about Sins!
My work and tests are focused around AI players. Playing AI players above the 'unfair' level is extremely difficult and makes for massive, intense and extended battles.
I don't use Diplomacy mechanics in my game play ... so I take on all the AI players, eventually.
"... when we're talking about player versus player combat, the power difference becomes ten times more significant." ... never seen it, x10 is an exaggeration ... lol ... sorry.
When AI players fight among themselves I do not see clear and quick victories between new and original races.
It's okay, it's okay.
I understand where you're coming from.
I only just recently started playing RTSes against other players (I love a good comp stomp!)
In any case, I also understand that making something this huge is difficult and time-consuming, so I think I'll just take a day off to try editing unit stats myself and distribute those files to the group I play with.
Thanks for taking the time to respond, though. Still love the mod.
Will Dreadnoughts be making a comeback in the "expansion release"?
Edit: By the way, this release is the most wonderfully stable for us so far. Previous versions would often crash a couple hours in, but we have yet to crash even a single time on this.
I appreciate where you are coming from also. Over the course of development I have been backing of the strength's of the new players, and I don't discount doing it further. But I am in the midst's of completing the pirate race ... lots of work.
I think it is a good idea, as you explained, to edit the unit stats yourself. I have left all mod files as text and not as compressed binaries so anyone can experiment and adjust ... to their needs.
The expansion version will have dreadnoughts, expanded pirates and militia as per release 8 ... and a more complete pirate race.
Thanks for the feedback on the stability of the mod. Apart from taking out the pirate race and updating the voice-overs I did not do much. Sins has always had a problem with large mods and the 2GB RAM limit (32-bit program)
I would like to combine 2 mods Maelstrom and E4X. Can I do that?
Not easily
this mod is the best i played with ssoase. thanks for your excellent work.
i am waiting for the Expansion R9.
Cheers ... Glad you enjoy it
Takanya is right the power difference between the old factions and new is huge now the 3 added races are hella cool and downright impressive but i would suggest buffing the old 3 races or toning down the new ones
Not too worried ...
For instance, when I leave AI players fight among themselves the new race do not always win
Is there a way to turn off cinematic mode?
Check icon/button on top of in-game screen, it is called "Toggle Cinematic Mode"
Friend his work is amazing I follow your mod a long time congratulations
Thanks ... I am glad you have enjoyed the mod :)
Hi, was wondering if there was a way to contact you without putting all your info out on here, Im wanting to find a way to keep certain planets, delete some things and add a different faction in place of the norlamins. Im not a modder, but if I could get DKR to compat. I would be happy, even without the dred.
What you want to do is complicated and time consuming. Unfortunately I do not have the time for tutorials ... but the modders on the Sins forums are always happy to help.
Apparently, there is a new patch for Rebellion in the works. 1.83.
IT has alot of neat features for rebellion, including the new ability to make multiple different titans for each faction :D
Thanks.
I am aware of the 1.83 beta
Forums.sinsofasolarempire.com
I believe there are some sound issues with the patch.
I was not aware that there was a new ability for multiple Titans.
Where are you getting your info from?
Right on Steam forums. Via official announcement in part of the 'For Modders' part. Cant have them all at once, but modders can make different titans for different roles Im guessing.
Thanks ... will track and eventually update Maelstrom accordingly.
The change log on steam is more extensive than on the Sins forums ... lol
"Modders can now make factions with nine different titans to choose from. You can still only build one titan at a time even with this change"
Would be pretty neat to be able to choose from different titans :P Though, with so many choices, someone would have to find a way to break the 1 titan at a time limit XD
What I do is not really "breaking it" but rather bending it. I play with several titans (statwise/model etc) that are just "ordinary" ships but which you gain access to through research from the "Titan-tree". In game terms they act and look just like the real titans. Its the next best thing really. Currently doing a Empire-addon to this mod, so you have the SSD's, Eclipse-class, Executor-SSD etc for your Empire. Sometime you need a little "umpf" in your Empire if you know what I mean. Might use the Death Star as the actual Titan as you still can only have one of those. Or the Eclipse-MKII. Whatever floats my boat.
Hello! I have been playing your Mod for a long time, I enjoy it very much. Thank you for continuing development. People complaining about the power difference of the replicators vs everything else but i think you made them like that on purpose, given they are set out to eradicate(Or enslave never understood) organic life. Wouldn't make to much sense if they weren't so powerful, how would they ever complete there goal? Each one can exhibit there own strength, just now you can't out brawl everything head on, The TEC can win a game purely by using their Superweapons and long range siege ships, Advent can control and prevent enemy ships from using abilities thus preventing them from replicating, The vasari aren't real remarkable to me though. The Cators may be over powered early game but as the game progresses they do not gain much from weapon upgrades and hull upgrades. You have to beat them late game, not a straight rush from the beginning. I like what he has done with these, making people have to think and consider their different avenues of approach in defeating a opponent who is better in every way. They are hard, but not unbeatable, Doesn't ruin a game, makes it more challenging, Try fighting them if you don't like them being OP.
1. Lore vs. gameplay would probably make more sense if this were a modification to a singleplayer story mode. However, this is a multiplayer game.
2. Rather than giving a player more incentive to move out of their comfort zone by giving them an advantage by doing so, this power difference is FORCING the player to try uncomfortable alternate strategies that are still not likely to work by giving the other party an unreasonable power advantage. The TEC player can build Novaliths and shoot the reps' planets, sure, but how is he supposed to build enough Novalith guns when the Reps are smashing all of his defenses and taking all of his planets (which he needs to build more guns)? The TEC player can only slightly out-produce the Alliance player, whose ships can easily crush all but the strongest of their TEC equivalents (except starbases). The Advent player can't out-culture the Norlamin player, nor can he beat him in direct combat (and the Norlamin cruisers will just steal his ships, anyway). The Vasari player can not fight the Replicator player, and his only option will be to use his mobility to retreat time and time again until he is eventually cornered at his homeworld (since his raid attempts were all crushed by the Replicator starbases and Orbital Thumpers). The fairest fight left is probably TEC vs. norlamin using Novalith spam, but that's pretty boring.
3. Your point on Replicator research is straight-up wrong, man. Reps most certainly do not "not gain much from upgrades". While they have an extremely slow start to research (this is probably what you were thinking about), they end the combat research trees with hugely stronger stats than everyone else in every category except speed (I assume the Vasari have them beat in mobility, anyway), and their support trees provide them with a very strong economy.
I probably sound like a total **** after all this. ****, the guy doesn't even have to do anything. It's his mod, not mine. But I believe the mod would benefit significantly from better balance, even if it's just a very slight nerf to the new guys or buff to the old guys.
Lastly, question time.
How would you suggest an Advent player beat a similarly-skilled Norlamin player? Or an Alliance/Norlamin player beat Replicators? Hell, even a Replicator BOT?
You could always edit the stats to get the balance you are looking for. I do that all the time. Its not that hard nor time-consuming unless its major rebalance you are after.
Ah, christ. Never thought of that myself.
Thanks, mate.
It'll be a slight pain in the arse, but at least I can try to solve the balancing issues for just myself and my buddies.
Yeah, its also alot of fun when you see the results. Increasing army-sizes, adding other races, changing out models from other mods... it makes the game even better when you immerse yourself in its mechanics and tinker with them to suit your own needs.
I really like the concept in the Star Wars universe of all the new researchable ships.
This approach is only effectively works for human player vs player as the AI does not understand the tactical differences between the new and researchable ships ... unfortunately, i.e only 6 types of capitalships ... of which there is not a strong preference for the AI to build one particular type. I struggled with this for some time and my solution was a new super-powered ship (dreadnought ... a ship with a bit of support could take out a starbase) which was automatically spawned ... so everyone had an equal advantage.
Yes, as you know it is very easily done ... and fun!
There is a difference, in game play, between player vs AI and player vs player.
There is a difference, in game play, player/AI vs 1 other player and player vs multiple players/AI
"The Vasari player can not fight the Replicator player" ... Vasari ships have the 'ability' to suppress abilities on Replicator ships, seen it, done it.
"How would you suggest an Advent player beat a similarly-skilled Norlamin player? Or an Alliance/Norlamin player beat Replicators? Hell, even a Replicator BOT? " ...
I see it all the time ... try AI cruel or vicious difficult level
Thanks for your feedback ...
In general, I do not find the Replicators over-powered compared to the Normlamins or TradeAlliance ... just different tactically. There are combinations of research and ships that an AI does not know how to take full advantage of.
Also game play depends on maps, player placement, AI difficulty levels, resource distribution ... sufficient complexity to make it interesting
"Try fighting them if you don't like them being OP" ... agreed